Fresh
Here is a comedy that valiantly defies both gravity and the latest Hollywood fashion.
Frank Rich, TIME Magazine
Being There
Getting there is half the fun; being there is all of it!
1979 · 2h 10m · PG
Comedy, Drama
Directed by
Hal Ashby
Overview
A simple-minded gardener named Chance has spent all his life in the Washington D.C. house of an old man. When the man dies, Chance is put out on the street with no knowledge of the world except what he has learned from television.
Director and cast
- Hal Ashby Director
- Peter Sellers as Chance
- Shirley MacLaine as Eve Rand
- Melvyn Douglas as Benjamin Rand
- Jack Warden as President 'Bobby'
- Richard Dysart as Dr. Robert Allenby
- Richard Basehart as Vladimir Skrapinov
- Ruth Attaway as Louise
- David Clennon as Thomas Franklin (as Dave Clennon)
- Fran Brill as Sally Hayes
- Denise DuBarry Cast
Critics on Rotten Tomatoes
Top critics, in their words
95%
Tomatometer
Fresh
A highly unusual and an unusually fine film.
Variety Staff, Variety
Fresh
No one seems to know what to do with the allegorical undertone of Jerzy Kosinski's script, but as a whole this 1979 film maintains a fine level of wit, sophistication, and insight.
Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader
Rotten
What emerges in the end is a strange ambiguity of attitude to the American political system and a hollow humour about cultural values. The cinema of cynicism, really.
Chris Auty, Time Out
Fresh
Hal Ashby directs Being There at an unruffled, elegant pace, the better to let Mr. Sellers's double-edged mannerisms make their full impression upon the audience.
Janet Maslin, New York Times
More films
Forrest Gump (1994)
Comedy · Drama · Romance · PG-13
A man with a low IQ has accomplished great things in his life and been present during significant historic events—in each case, far exceeding what anyone imagined he could do. But despite all he has achieved, his one true love eludes him.
- Runtime
- 2h 22m
- Director
- Robert Zemeckis
- Cast
- Tom Hanks, Robin Wright, Gary Sinise
IMDb
8.8
Rotten Tomatoes
75%
Metacritic
82
Comments
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